State probes illness at Middleboro school

The school department is working with a state epidemiologist to determine what was the source of a stomach virus that sickened a third of the students and more than half the teachers at the Mary K. Goode Elementary School.

The School Department is working with a state epidemiologist to determine the source of a stomach virus that sickened a third of the students and more than half the teachers at the Mary K. Goode Elementary School.

On Friday, 235 students and 25 teachers called in sick or were sent home with a fast-moving stomach bug. There are 686 students and 46 teachers in the school, according to the Department of Education.

By Monday, things seemed to be back to normal, said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, top medical officer at the Department of Public Health.

He said a 24-hour norovirus likely came from a common source because so many took sick all at once. DeMaria said typically a norovirus strikes in two-day cycles.

“We are still trying to determine the source,” DeMaria said. “We are trying to figure out where all these people were on Tuesday and Wednesday.”

DeMaria said all food handlers will be questioned to find out if they were recently sick, but added, “We frequently don’t find the source.”

Over the weekend the school was cleaned and sanitized, but DeMaria said a widespread disinfection was not necessary.

“You can touch the virus all you want as long as you don’t touch your mouth,” he said. The virus is spread by body fluids from vomit or stool. “It is passed from person to person through direct contact,” he said.

DeMaria said there have been no reported outbreaks of the virus at other schools in Massachusetts.

Hand washing is the key to avoiding the virus, and DeMaria cautioned a norovirus can sometimes survive hand sanitizers.

“It is important to remember you can prevent this by very scrupulous hygienic practices,” DeMaria said.

Hilary Olson, officer manager for Dr. Anders Martenson III, said the Middleboro doctor was too busy with sick patients to be interviewed by The Enterprise.

“We’ve been bombed,” she said, adding parents have been advised to keep their children at home to ride out the nasty stomach bug, which is accompanied by vomiting and/or diarrhea.

Olson said a few patients went to the emergency room for dehydration, which can be particularly dangerous in infants.